Skull-shaped asteroid will fly past Earth on Halloween [View all]

[RandySF]

As if Halloween needed to be any scarier, a giant skull is flying through space toward Earth.

"The (Infrared Telescope Facility) data may indicate that the object might be a dead comet, but in the Arecibo images it appears to have donned a skull costume for its Halloween flyby," said Kelly Fast, IRTF program scientist at NASA Headquarters.

Earth is in no real danger, though; NASA projects the object - officially "asteroid TB145" - will pass by Earth from about 302,000 miles away at about noon CST on Halloween.

Still, for Halloween drama it's hard to beat a giant space skull.

The object was first spotted Oct. 10 by the University of Hawaii's Pan-STARRS-1 (Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System) on Haleakala, Maui. It's next Earth flyby will come in September 2018, although at a much farther distance: about 24 million miles.


http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/skull-shaped-asteroid-will-fly-past-earth-on-halloween/ar-BBmEhE3?li=BBgzzfc&ocid=mailsignout